This invention relates to a method of processing nuclear fuel scraps containing gadolinium oxide. More particularly, it relates to a process for recovering uranium and gadolinium from nuclear fuel scraps. 2. Description of the Prior Art:
A recent trend in operating boiling water reactors ( BWR ) is to use highly enriched uranium oxide ( UO.sub.2 ) fuel to ensure higher burnup and economic efficiency. Fuel of this kind contains several percent of gadolinium oxide ( Gd.sub.2 O.sub.3 ), a substance having high neutron-absorbing capacity, in order to suppress excess reactivity in the initial stage of combustion and to ensure stable power output. Such nuclear fuel is manufactured by intimately mixing UO.sub.2 powder and Gd.sub.2 O.sub.3 powder and compression-molding the homogenous powder mixture into columns, followed by sintering. It is unavoidable that scraps are produced to a greater or lesser extent in the molding step. Because the conventional processing of such scraps will produce a UO.sub.2 powder containing undesired amounts of gadolinium, such scraps are usually stored in unprocessed form.